


Ring

by nadiacreek



Category: Glee
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-17
Updated: 2013-04-17
Packaged: 2017-12-08 19:02:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,671
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/764912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nadiacreek/pseuds/nadiacreek
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Blaine goes to buy a ring. So does Kurt.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ring

**Author's Note:**

> This fic contains SPOILERS for episodes 4x21 and 4x22.

The bell over the shop door tinkled lightly. Steph looked up from the new shipment of inventory.  She loved the sound of that bell. It was almost like wind chimes, much more melodic and pleasant than the harsh ones so many shops used. She would never understand why other shops didn’t take more steps to feel homey and comfortable. She spent at least as much time here as she did in her own home.

The man who entered—practically a boy, really, Steph thought—looked nervous at even being in the store, as so many men did. He wore jeans and a red cardigan, his hair shellacked to his scalp with gel. Steph walked out from behind the counter. She always tried to be as welcoming as possible. “Good afternoon!” she called out. “How can I help you today?”

“Oh, I don’t want to be a bother,” the boy said. “I’m not going to buy anything. Not today, anyway. I’m just looking. If that’s alright?”

Steph smiled at him. “It’s always a good idea to shop around, especially when you’re making a big purchase like jewelry. What kind of thing are you looking for?” She had a good idea of what he’d be looking for. With no girl by his side to help him pick it out, it was clearly meant to be a surprise. With this level of nervousness, he was likely thinking about proposing. He looked so young, though. It’s so easy to make a mistake at that age, rushing headlong into something you’re not yet ready for. But then again, at her age, everyone looked young.

“I … um …” the boy glanced around the shop and then looked at his feet. “I can just look around by myself. I’m sure you’re busy.”

Steph touched his wrist gently. His nervousness was endearing, and fortunately the touch seemed to steady him a bit. She liked this boy already. She gestured at the empty shop. “Do I look busy?”

“Um … not really, no.”

She held out her hand to shake. “My name is Steph. I can be very helpful, I promise. Ring shopping can be very intimidating if you don’t know what you’re looking for. It is ring shopping, isn’t it?”

The boy blushed slightly, but he took her hand in a firm handshake. “Yes. Yes it is. I’m Blaine. Yes. Rings. Not for now, but … just to start thinking about … for later.”

“Lovely! Congratulations!” Even if they were probably too young, the romance of engagement and marriage always made her happy. And besides, he did say he wasn’t going to propose right away. Maybe he’d wait a year or two. “We have a good selection of engagement rings over in this case, and once you understand the different options and elements, we can order basically any combination you can imagine and get the diamond and the setting you want within a few weeks.”

“Oh, I … um …” Blaine looked down at his feet again and then back at her. “I’m looking for something that’s kind of … nontraditional. Not like a regular single big diamond thing. Something that’s … um … it’s for a guy.”

Steph threw her arms around him in an impulsive hug. It was probably inappropriate, but she couldn’t stop herself. She suddenly felt so motherly toward him. “Oh, you sweet, brave boy!” she said. She stepped back and took in Blaine’s stunned expression. Probably not the reaction he’d expected, she mused, but she was unable to stop grinning. She looked over her shoulder toward the swinging door that led to the back room. “Mary!” she called out. “Mary, come out here!”

“What’s all the fuss?” Mary asked, bustling out and taking her glasses off to see better at the distance.

Steph clapped Blaine on the shoulder. “This boy here is looking for an engagement ring _for his boyfriend._ ”

Mary squealed and started hopping up and down.

“He’s not actually my boyfriend,” Blaine said.

Steph and Mary abruptly stopped bouncing and whirled their heads to look at him.

“He … um, he _was_. And I hope he will again, but … we broke up. It was … my fault, I … well, anyway, he’s speaking to me again and … a lot more than that. He seems happy to be around me again. I think … I _hope_ we’ll get back together soon. So, yeah, I’m not _really_ shopping for a ring, I just … I always thought we’d be together forever. I still think that. And with the Supreme Court case, the idea that someday we could get legally married and that would be valid in all fifty states, I just … I just wanted to look at rings, and think about it. I … I shouldn’t bother you, I’m sorry.” Blaine turned to leave.

“Hey, hey, hey, stop right there, mister,” Mary said. “You are not bothering me and my _partner_ in the slightest.” She emphasized the word ‘partner’ in just the right way, conveying that she meant much more than ‘business partner.’

Blaine turned back. “You and your … Oh! Hi! I mean, I met you already just now, but _hi_! I … um … I’m sorry, I’m usually more coherent than this.”

Mary stepped up, taking over the situation with her typical down-to-business approach now that the initial excitement was over. Steph smiled and watched her, knowing that she was more expert in men’s jewelry anyway. “Okay, so we’re looking for a nontraditional engagement ring, something suitable for a man but different in appearance than a plain wedding band. Is that correct?”

“Yes, exactly,” Blaine said. He sounded relieved.

“Have you given any thought to whether you’d want to wear one too?”

“Hmm, no, I hadn’t thought about that. Maybe … I don’t know … he’s more the jewelry person, but it would be nice to have matching ones, maybe ...”

“Let’s look in this case over here,” Mary said, guiding him with one hand on his shoulder.

Steph slipped into the back room to boil some water for tea.

They chatted for an hour, the three of them. First about rings, and then about the Supreme Court case, and then about Blaine’s hopes of getting back together with his boyfriend. Steph and Mary told him all about their struggles, their dreams, their more than thirty years together. How they’d never imagined they could one day be actually, legally married, and their excitement that it might soon be a possibility, even in Ohio. When Blaine finally left, saying he couldn’t be late to glee club rehearsal this close to the Regionals competition, they made him promise to come back again just to chat.

“Lovely boy,” Steph said fondly as the door closed behind him, the bell tinkling again.

“A bit young to get married,” Mary said.

“Well, he’s got time to grow out of that.”

They laughed together, holding hands.

\--------------------------------------------

The next afternoon, Steph looked up at the tinkle of the doorbell. Her face lit up and she darted out from behind the counter. “Kurt Hummel! Didn’t I tell you not to be a stranger? I haven’t seen you in nearly a year.” She practically ran up to him and hugged him, her arms slotting around his waist in an unfamiliar way. She leaned back to take a good look at him. “I do believe you’re a whole foot taller than when you left for New York.”

Kurt laughed that glorious, melodic laugh of his. “But you look just the same,” he said.

“What brings you here? Just coming to chat, or are you looking for something? We have some new brooches in, there’s a zebra one you might like, and …”

Kurt shook his head. “I’m actually looking for a ring. An engagement ring.”

His voice was confident and sure, not at all like the nervous stammers of that lovely boy from yesterday. Steph nearly squealed with delight. She almost wanted to hug him again. “Are you still with that boy you were dating in high school? Or did someone in New York sweep you off your feet?”

“It’s the boy from high school,” Kurt said. “But actually, we’re not together right now.”

Steph raised an eyebrow. “That will take some explanation, young man. But let me get Mary so you don’t have to tell the story twice.”

Mary burst out of the back room. “I hear Kurt. Is that Kurt?”

“Yes it is. And he’s about to tell us why he wants to buy an engagement ring for a boy he’s not even dating.”

“Little Kurt Hummel?” Mary said in a tone of disbelief. “The boy is what, thirteen years old?”

Kurt laughed. “I’m turning twenty in May.”

“My my my,” Mary said, looking him up and down. She put her hands on her hips. “So tell me your crazy story about this boy, then.”

Kurt’s confidence never shook, not in the slightest. “We broke up back in October,” he said. “He hurt me. Badly. It took me a long time before I could even look at him again without hurting. But now … now it doesn’t hurt anymore, somehow. I still love him, I never stopped loving him. I still imagine us living our lives together, and … I’ve realized that I still want that to happen. But I can’t let him hurt me again. If we get back together, I want us both to understand that it’s intended to be forever. No little tentative steps. It’s all or nothing. I can’t be with him if it’s not … for real. If he doesn’t understand how serious it is. It could be a long engagement, we don’t have to get married right away. But I can’t bear to be with him again without it.”

Steph clasped her hand over her mouth. She looked at Mary and saw her wide-eyed. “Kurt, hon,” Steph said, recovering herself. “What’s this boy’s name? I can’t believe you’ve never even told us his name.”

Kurt smiled. “It’s Blaine. Blaine Anderson.”

“Nice name,” Mary said wryly.

Steph elbowed her in the side and Mary jumped.

“I have just the ring for you,” Mary said knowingly. “He’s going to love it.”


End file.
